At Least Some 220 Central Park South Tenants Have Left the Building

Developers, if at first you don’t succeed in ousting rent-stabilized tenants, try, try and try for several more years.

A team of Vornado Realty Trust and the Clarett Group appears to have reached a settlement with rent-stabilized tenants at 220 Central Park South. The developers of a proposed new condo project want to tear down the bland rental between Broadway and Columbus Circle and put up a shiny, 40-plus-story glass replacement. They were originally offering tenants, including Corcoran’s Leighton Candler, $1 million to vacate the building.

Now, according to city records, 15 such holdouts, including Ms. Candler, have been bought out for between $1.3 million and $1.56 million.

Clarett and Vornado bought the building for $131.5 million in 2005 and have been fighting with the tenants in court for several years. Despite notable setbacks for landlords trying to vanquish rent-stabilized tenants (see: Stuy Town), the developer in this case has been winning legal battles, and now appears closer to winning the war.

One group unlikely to be cracking out the spiked eggnog are the neighbors, none too happy about having a building as tall as the Hearst Tower erected next door.

The Observer tried this afternoon to track down more answers, to no avail yet. Even famously workaholic developers take holidays, apparently.